Designing a Flagship Store That Works on Gamedays
A system-led redesign of the Giants’ flagship store, built to handle the intensity of gamedays.
Overview
The San Francisco Giants’ flagship Dugout Store sits on the outer façade of Oracle Park. It’s open to the street year-round and, on gamedays, serves as a major ingress route into the stadium bowl.
That means it has to operate as more than a regular store. It functions as a high-volume experience system, balancing retail, circulation, and stadium access under live gameday pressure.
Historically, it operated like a standard team store. People slowed where they shouldn’t. Decision points weren’t clear. Storytelling competed with circulation. Staff regularly had to step in to manage flow.
The problem wasn’t just the visual identity. It was how the space behaved when it mattered most.
Context & Framing
This wasn’t a blank-sheet redesign. The footprint was fixed, the upcoming MLB season meant hard deadlines, and crowd volumes ranged from quiet weekday mornings to full gameday surges. On gamedays, the store wasn’t just retail. It became part of the stadium’s ingress infrastructure.
The space had to accommodate very different audiences moving at different speeds, with no downtime for resets and no flexibility to expand. Tourists browsing, fans shopping with intent, and crowds moving towards their seats for first pitch all overlapped.
I led the experience design strategy across internal teams, the retail partner, and an external agency, aligning on how the space should operate as a cohesive system rather than just how it should look.
That led to a simple framing question:
How should this space behave when it’s full?
Designing a Layout Around Movement
The original layout prioritised category zoning over circulation. Entry and exit points created opposing flows, congestion at thresholds, and early decision fatigue.
As the building envelope couldn’t be moved or structurally changed, the solution had to work within the existing shell. Within that constraint, a new entrance was introduced, allowing the original street opening to be repurposed as a dedicated exit, with street-facing access consolidated into a single, controlled entrance.
This removed opposing ingress and egress, reduced early congestion, and gave Operations predictable control of capacity on matchdays. Queueing could now be managed upstream, with security acting as a natural choke point rather than a reactive fix within the store.
From there, circulation was simplified into:
- primary routes for fast, direct movement
- secondary paths for browsing and dwell
High-throughput categories were brought forward. Slower, exploratory zones were pushed deeper into the plan. Manned checkouts were repositioned to sit naturally within the flow, while self-checkout was introduced to absorb peak transaction volume.
Designing the System
Rather than starting with fixtures or hero moments, the work focused on predictability and legibility.
Key decisions included:
- clear sightlines from entry through the first third of the store
- controlled fixture heights along primary routes
- modular fixtures that could flex season to season
- zoning that made intent obvious without relying on signage
The goal was for a first-time visitor to understand how to navigate the space instinctively, even under time pressure.
Fixtures were designed as repeatable components rather than one-off statements. Elements such as the year-based display towers served multiple roles: merchandising, wayfinding, and visual rhythm. Because they were modular, they could be refreshed season to season without rethinking circulation or compromising flow.
Storytelling as a Supporting Layer
Storytelling was treated as a supporting layer rather than the focus.
The aim was to make the space feel authentic to the Giants community without getting in the way of how people moved. Rather than pulling attention to screens or moments that would stop the flow on gamedays, we used lighter cues that kept fans connected to the game as they passed through. That included live radio broadcasts, call-outs to iconic moments, in-bowl soundFX, and a live splash hit counter.
The result was a space that felt dynamic and elevated, somewhere fans could recognise their team and celebrate it, without the experience becoming a blockage.
Outcomes
The store shifted from something staff had to actively manage to something the layout could handle on its own. Separating entry and exit gave Operations clearer control over capacity, with queues dealt with outside the store rather than building up inside.
A testament to the structure is how it held during unique high-demand moments, including the launch of the 2025 City Connect uniform, without compromising ingress or circulation. Because the system was modular, it also made it easier to introduce new product takeovers and storytelling without disrupting the flow, allowing the store to evolve season to season without rework.
Overall, the store now supports:
- more predictable movement at peak demand
- operational control without manual crowd management
- dwell where it adds value, not friction
- a retail experience that scales
Decisions & Reflection
Several visually strong ideas were deliberately left out. Some concepts looked great in isolation but wouldn't hold up in a busy environment. If an idea compromised sightlines, restricted movement, or relied on staff to manage behaviour, it didn’t make it through. The test was simple: would this still work on a busy gameday?
The system mattered more than any single feature.
This project set out a repeatable way of bringing together retail, circulation, and brand experience in live sports environments, one that can flex to different crowd profiles and scale beyond a single store.
